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While everyone says that Toyota will soon have to worry about VW and GM with its status of “World’s largest auto manufacturer”, it’ll soon add Nissan to that list.
Honestly, Toyota thrived on the Prius’ success, it has been dominant of the hybrid market share for years and left almost if not all other manufacturers still playing catch up. I can get that Toyota likes to leapfrog over competitors, which is why they’re betting on Hydrogen. I know I’ll sound hypocritical but how would Hydrogen be a safer bet or would create a more successful market than EVs?
I don’t want to see Toyota stumble, but it’s becoming irritable. Yet, I’ll forget all of that when then new Prius arrives, given if the Pip is far better and competitive on both the field and on paper.

Does anyone believe Toyota would continue to build Hybrids if there was a mass produced low-cost, high-energy battery available to power BEVs? Do you really believe this large car company doesn’t have a BEV design in the incubator? Get Real and realize what’s going on here. Why would Toyota sell the Fremont plant to Tesla then let a contract to them to build their compliance drive line? Then even invest in the company. Ever notice Toyota doesn’t compete with Tesla on the high end cars? Lots of tie ins here and a history that indicates whole lot of smart sandbagging by Toyota. Rest assured Toyota will exit the BEV closet when the timing is right.

No soul, no sale. I wouldn’t like to buy their product if they hate it, yet should we let them confirm their argument by no one buying them, or should they sell them all, call ’em back, shut the lights and say job done.
They are treating their compliant cars as chores. The scheme was supposed to entice and involve manufacturers into EVs. They’re all pretty much opening the door before them for GM, Nissan, BMW, Daimler, Ford and Mitsubishi to some extent. I hope Kia doesn’t do the same.

As much as I don’t like or agree with Toyota’s outlook, they are, in fact, Toyota. And thus, they are not idiots, seeing as they spend millions researching trends and consumer desires and whatnot. I’m pretty sure that if Toyota thought that THEY needed to produce electric cars for other than compliance, they would. So while we may not like it, it’s a data point driven home by one of the smarter, more admirable car companies on the planet. Dismissing that out of hand just because we don’t like it is folly.

“there’s no market tor it, and there won’t be one until magic happens”.

Toyota’s public EV-dissing is both infuriating and laughable at the same time.

Infuriating, because as the world’s consumer-car market leader their CEO’s words have a direct impact on the market, and his words are thoughtless and unsubstantiated. See the commenter above who automatically attaches gravitas to what is pure spin.

Laughable, because even now both Nissan and Tesla cannot make enough BEVs to meet rising demand, despite quickly closing in on 100,000/year worldwide units combined. Way ahead of the Prius in its early days.

There’s a real point here. A lot of car makers have decided that the future is a plug in hybrid, and are betting big on that, including Toyota here. Look at Ford with the C-MAX, and they have all but abandoned their EV. I would argue that GM has similar thoughts.

The problem with this thinking is that EVs tend to take away the same buyers as would be interested in PHEVs. Thus, whatever market share they both have, they are fundamentally in conflict.

I would agree with Toyota if they actually built some freaking plugin hybrids.

The PiP is a joke. $8000 extra for just 3.1kWh of extra battery? It’s really annoying seeing automakers price their plugins as a high margin luxury model as opposed to the same margin as the base model.

It’s not even that. They’re taking advantage of brand recognition to create a new most-expensive model. Ford is doing the same thing with the Fusion.

If they just wanted to match profits, then the PIP would cost way less. Again, it’s a mere 3 kWh extra battery. Even using expensive batteries, that couldn’t cost more than $2k. Charging electronics don’t cost much either. IMO it’s pretty clear that they want *extra* profits from the PiP.

The same approach was made years ago by companies such as Honda with regards to early “mainstream” hybrids such as the Accord hybrid. Their price structure put the hybrid above their previous top of the line EX V6.

This is funny as few predicted the market for iphones. Toyota reminds me a bit like Blackberry

Here is a quote from a bbry insider ““The problem wasn’t that we stopped listening to customers,” said one former RIM insider. “We believed we knew better what customers needed long term than they did. Consumers would say, ‘I want a faster browser.’ We might say, ‘You might think you want a faster browser, but you don’t want to pay overage on your bill.’ ‘Well, I want a super big very responsive touchscreen.’ ‘Well, you might think you want that, but you don’t want your phone to die at 2 p.m.’ “We would say, ‘We know better, and they’ll eventually figure it out.’ Sounds a lot like Toyota these days…..

It was over 10 years ago that Toyota invested in hybrid technology, and is still running with the same technology today. Ford used it and dumped it, Nissan used it and dumped it. Ford was to work with Toyota on a hybrid drivetrain for trucks and SUVs, but found Toyota really had nothing to offer, so Ford is spending over $500 Million and is building the system on their own. Toyota will continue to roll with their current 10+ year old system as sales decline. Just think about it, toyota is still using nickel batteries in their hybrids and the smallest lithium battery in their plug-in possible. The 4 speed auto transmission in the 2014 Corolla is from the 1980s. The platform and most body components, electronics, for most of their lineup, including Camry and Corolla is over 10 years old. Which is why their recalls can stretch from 2012 back to 2005, and why both the ‘new’ 2014 Camry and Corolla rate very low as ‘marginal’ with the latest crash tests…just like the old model. Toyota can talk about hydrogen until the cows come home, but convincing the public to drive around in a hydrogen bomb is a different… Read more »

Bloggin> Toyota is using the same Hybrid system because it is a Proven system, and the Battery is cheaper to replace, The Battery in the Kia,Hyundia, Chevy Volt are very expensive to replace and have a higher up front cost, The 2014 Corolla has a CTV Transmission,only The Base L model still has a 4 speed Transmission or a 6 Speed Manual Transmission.

This is reminds me of how the owners of the James River and Kanawha Canal acted in the 1840’s with railroads running all around them. Toyota should at least offer one or two battery electric models to stay in the game in that they where talking about hydrogen cars in the early 2000’s coming out in two to three years. They even made a lot of programs about the hydrogen economy. But then Tesla came out with the 250 mile plus EV and things changed in that you don’t need a muti million dollar refilling station to us for hydrogen and you can plug in at home.

As for the Prius I think they have done all they can for it in that 50 miles seems max for about as much energy you can get out of a gallon of gas unless they built a 70 mile pure gallon none plug in Prius. While with EV’s the tech has only had some serous thought in the last few years.

Toyota is blowing smoke and trying to maximize sales from what they have in showrooms now while they wait for the BBB (big battery breakthrough) with the rest of us.

I guarantee that as soon as one of the many potential BBBs pans out, we’ll see the currently hesitant companies like Toyota carpet bombing TV and radio with ads for their EVs.

I’m convinced that some companies are terrified of making the transition from current battery prices to those we’ll see post-BBB. They don’t want to sell a $30K car and have it drop $10K in one model year, and then have to deal with angry customers or seriously devalued vehicles coming off lease. I think this is a classic example of being penny wise and pound foolish; Toyota needs to jump into this market or give away a piece of their future market to Nissan and others.

I would agree with that assessment but it continually amazes me that such huge companies don’t make sure they have a handful of wizards on staff so they avoid such classic mistakes as these famous last words.

Guys and Gals, all of you fail to see the real reason for Toyota’s stance against electric cars. It is said that the real money to be made in the automotive business, is what you spend on the car, AFTER the purchase. Think tune ups, oil changes, transmissions, un regenerative braking systems, parts failures and their replacements, etc, etc. None of the above is relevant to electric cars. Notice how this is NEVER mentioned? When electric cars really come into being, the dealers and their shop mechanics will suffer financially the most, to say nothing of the kajillion independent auto repair shops presently in existence.

Toyota, may do about face, yet if they continue to build soulless cars (except the 86 built by Subaru) they may not have a big of a business that they wished for.
In the 80’s & 90’s a lot of their product was well built, but now they really need some car guys that are passionate – including EV types.
Otherwise their Prius Hybrid technology will always be prior / before and not the future.
Competition is a good thing, who knows, maybe the Toyota accountants that run the whole operation might see the EV light one day!

Don’t Toyota own a big share of Tesla? I can’t believe these statements are anything other than a delaying tactic to allow them to catch up or a result of them turning up to the party without a big Li-battery supplier.

Someone told me that it takes 5 years for a new drive train to enter mass production. I can believe it looking at all the difficulty that manufacturers are having trying to build a few thousand EV’s a month, perhaps Toyota just need time. I think the US automakers statements around small cars is probably a good parallel to draw, they all said that there was no demand, they were all developing a small car though. I suppose if you get it wrong you are hardly going to come clean and say “look our competitors have made a really good car that everyone wants and we have nothing that can compete”

Daimler AG invested $50 million for a 10 percent stake in 2009, while Toyota purchased the $50 million worth of stock when the electric car company went public in July 2010.

Daimler has a seat on the Tesla board. Toyota is just an investor like anyone else who buys Tesla stock across the counter with no other attachments.

The one time RAV4 EV collaboration seems to be part of the agreement tied to Toyota’s stock purchase. Something like…..”You help us get a compliance EV ready for CA, and we will invest $50 Million in your company”.